SOUTH SHORE INSIDER: Wahlburgers CEO talks about Toronto expansion

Wahlburgers CEO Rick Vanzura said that the unlikely location second location for the Hingham burger restaurant -- Toronto -- was a matter of good fortune and strong contacts. He also said the company is still looking to expand in the Boston area.

When Mark and Donnie Wahlberg opened Wahlburgers restaurant in the Hingham Shipyard with their brother Paul, the executive chef, in 2011, most people expected that the family would open its second burger restaurant in the Boston market.

The next Wahlburgers isn’t going to open in Boston, however, or in Massachusetts, or even in the United States. It will open early next year in downtown Toronto.

Wahlburgers CEO Rick Vanzura said that the unlikely location choice was a matter of good fortune and strong contacts. He also said this international venture won’t deter the company from its plans to expand in the Boston area.

How did the second-ever Wahlburgers end up in Toronto?

Henry Wu, who’s an investor in the Wahlbergs’ other restaurant, Alma Nove, owns a hotel up there. Our focus has been on trying to expand within Boston first before we thought about other markets, but this happened to be a lucky case where we know Henry, and he’s very well-respected in hotels and as a restaurant operator.

He’s in business with Bruce Greenberg, another well-known developer in Toronto. They get the brand, so we thought if we wanted to do anything outside of Boston, this would be a perfect situation. Plus, Donnie and Mark are extremely well-known in Toronto.

What is the Toronto space like?

It’s in a hotel, a space currently occupied by a hair salon. It’s 3,500 square feet, directly across the street from Wayne Gretzky’s restaurant in Toronto and in a major entertainment district, near the stadiums.

That’s compared to Hingham, which is 4,300 square feet. In the Hingham space, we have an area to handle large orders and prepare for catering events, so some of that space we don’t necessarily need in Toronto.

Is your overall plan still to develop within the Boston area?

I don’t want to be too specific, but we’re looking at locations right now in Boston proper and along the I-95 ring around Boston.

What are you looking for in a location?

It’s a combination of things. One is, what’s going to be the traffic? We want to go someplace that has enough population nearby that we can attract a seven-day-a-week crowd of office workers, a residential population, and a retail population.

Demographically, it needs enough income. We don’t see ourselves as being expensive, but it needs to support our “better burger” concept.

Lastly, it’s about the space itself. We’d ideally like to have something like the space we have in Hingham – high ceilings, adequate seating, and a patio. It’s great if you can get it, but in Boston, with all of the historical and zoning restraints, you usually can’t have it perfect.

Page 2 of 2 - How have sales been, now that Wahlburgers is going into its third year in business?

Our peak days now don’t look a whole lot different than our peak days did a year ago, from a volume standpoint.